Two Years On

Two years ago, for the first time in many years, I met with some other members of the Further Maths class I was in whilst in the Sixth Form. That get together took place down in Norfolk. This time we were in a city riddled with sandstone caves.

Famous for an archer…

…and the oldest Inn in England (allegedly – the back halves of some of the rooms are caves).

The high windows of this windmill gave great views over the cityscape…

Appropriately, George Green (1793 – 1841), the son of one of the millers here, was a mathematical physicist, famed for Green’s Function.

Later we took to the river in a rented boat.

Very pleasant it was too. Music, chit-chat, a picnic, home-brewed beer, champagne. And lots of birds to see…

Most notably the Sand Martins whizzing over the river and in and out of nest-holes in the bank…

They were much too fast for me to photograph. This is as close as I got…

In amongst the Martins, gratifyingly, a solitary Kingfisher, the first I’ve seen in quite some time.

This Buzzard…

…had me very confused hanging perfectly still above the riverside fields. I didn’t think that Buzzards could hover, but this one was using an updraft to maintain its position and presumably keep an eye on some tasty morsel below.

Touche!
A long, long time ago I played in a Brass Band. I seem to remember that hymns were all referred to by women’s names – I don’t know if that’s common practice. Anyway, the band leader decided to adopt the same idea with the boys in the band. I remember that my friend Darren was always, without exception, Gladys, but I can’t for the life of me remember what he called me. (He probably didn’t need to speak to me much, I was second baritone horn who didn’t practice and was probably best ignored, unlike Gladys who was a very accomplished cornet player).